We got this old mirror from my Mom several months ago. We thought about re-painting some or all of the frame, but it just did not go with the rest of our house, so I have been thinking about a way to re-frame it since the mirror/glass is very high quality.
When I was removing the wood shelves from the built-in cabinets in the living room, this got me thinking that we could use those knotty oak shelves to re-frame the mirror. Would that make this a "re-claimed" mirror? I think so.
The first step in creating the mirror was to cut the boards to the appropriate lengths, and to cut a groove in the back of each board (where the glass will sit).
I then sanded the front and sides of the boards with 60 and 80 grit sandpaper to remove the old finish and round the edges. I did this prior to assembly because I wanted to have a dramatic shadow where the horizontal and vertical boards meet.
I then joined the vertical and horizontal boards using biscuits and wood glue, as well as metal brackets screwed into the back of the boards. This assembly was too large for any of my clamps, so I held the structure together by using tie-downs (the kind you use to hold lumber in a car/truck) to squeeze the frame between two long pieces of 2x4. Clamps were also used to keep the pieces from popping up at the seams (i.e. to keep the frame flat).
I smacked the frame with a bag of nails and a screwdriver, as I thought this would add to the reclaimed look. The finished frame was then sanded with 120 grit sandpaper and finished with oil-based stain and polyurethane. Once that was dry, we inserted the mirror and prepared the back of the frame for hanging. Our lovely readers then helped Meredith discourage me from hanging the mirror in the living room, so it is now hung and looking great in the front hall. We will post more revealing photos of the entire front hall once everything is painted.
